The Missing Spartan
by spartan-80
Summary: What happens when a spartan that was once thought killed on reach comes back to Earth in a captured Covenant Frigate and John finds feelings for her...
1. Prologue:Botched Mission

In this story Cortana never stayed on Delta Halo and she detonated In Amber Clads reactor and blew up Delta Halo along with High Charity. However disorganized and crippled the Covenant are, they are still intact. With only the Brutes, Prophets, a handful of Elites and Jackals holding the Covenant together there is little hope for their victory over Humanity. The board of directors for the UNSC are reluctantly in favor of accepting the rest of the Elites, Grunts and Hunters onto earth and have been stationed at a remote military facility awaiting the boards overall decision. The war is closing to an end, and here is the story of: The Recruit...

The Missing Spartan

November 7, 2552

Washington II, Capital of Planet Prime

The Master Chief woke up with a startle by the pelicans turbulence, brought his rifle to bare, and everyone in the pelican went stiff. He realized he had fallen asleep on the way down to the city from the New super carrier Trafalgar II. He relaxed and watched as everyone else did as well. Damn he thought, this isn't a good example for the marines and especially the other Spartans. He sat straighter and went over the mission in his head again, which was surprising in its simplicity. Go in and help the Marines seek out all of the hostile forces and eliminate them. This was almost to simple, there has to be a catch, but he wouldn't know until it showed itself. But why worry, his entire team was compiled of Twelve battle hardened Marines, and four other Spartans. There was little to worry about,

Two minutes after a brief flyby the platoon hit the ground and things got bad fast. As soon as the pelican lifted off a group of Jackals peeked out from a large garbage bin and fired four charged plasma bolts and each caught a Marine from behind. The Spartans spun and fired, bullets ripping through the container and shredding the Jackals. One of the Marines was seriously injured but stable. Master Chief placed a NAV marker on a clearing towards the Southwest,"thats our LZ, if it gets too hot we retreat here and call for extraction. Will, take...Corporal Jagg, to the LZ and patch him up. Linda, get on a roof and eliminate any targets that so much as stick a hair out in he open. Fred your with me and the Marines. Team we got a mission, lets do it". The team split up and John and Fred's team started moving out when multiple cracks were heard: Linda's rifle John thought. Just as they turned the corner, a group of ghosts were spotted turning into their street. "Son of a- Hey", John muttered as he looked back to see a marine with a Rocket Launcher. John motioned the hesitant marine up front and took his Gun. He looked around the corner, hefted the launcher and fired. The rocket flew home and detonated halfway between the right wing and the driver seat. The Ghost veered right and collided with the neighboring Ghost and both blew up in a blue flash. John switched his attention to the third Ghost, locked on, and fired. It spiraled forward and exploded on the Brute driving. Just as the final ghost came bolting through the carnage a shot rang out and the Brutes head exploded. Thank you Linda. Just then Wills biomonitor skyrocketed and flat lined. What the hell? "Fred, get back and locate Will". As his acknowledgment light winked he ran off, and the remaining assault team members proceeded.

Fred raced back to find Corporal Jagg laying on the ground with a crushed head. Next to him was a Brute hunched

over something. Fred approached slowly with his Battle rifle raised, when the Brute spun and hit Fred with its Brute shot. Fred hit the ground with shields depleted. He rolled backwards to his feet and took a wide stance and drew his arm back, awaiting the Brutes next move. If it shot Fred, hes dead, but if it berserked, which Fred hoped for... he had a plan. The Brute howled into the air and through his gun down and charged Fred on all fours. Perfect. Fred flexed his fingers straight out, locked his suits hand and wrist joints and swung forward catching the brute in the forehead, plowing threw his skull and out the back of it head. As the Brute clawed in confusion at his head he went limp. Fred removed his hand shaking off all the brain matter and excess Brute, when he spotted Will. "WILL" Fred yelled, as he ran over to see his friends broken body. Wills armour was riddled with fist prints, and his faceplate was shattered, Fred closed his lifeless eyes. "I got that bastard for you Will". Over the com Fred could hear John," whats Wills condition over"? "He's Dead" Fred replied.


	2. An old Flame

November 8, 2552

Aboard Trafalgar II, Orbit around Earth

"...and so we commit our fallen comrade William, to space", finished Rear Admiral Miranda Keyes, as she pushed the eject button for Wills capsule. The three Spartans and the remainder of the Marines that survived the engagement at Prime stood at attention and saluted while watching Will drift off into space. After Keyes dimissed everyone, a marine walked over to John. "Um Master Chief, sir, my squad and I would like to apologize for Will's death". John was slightly confused, nodded and let the Marine continue. "We should have been on our toes, but i guess having Spartans around made us think we would all make it home without a worry, so if theres anything we can do...". By now John was staring at the floor thinking of all the people he lost on such a simple mission, then looked back up at the Marine. "No, I'm the one to be sorry, I was in command and I made mistakes, so don't think to much about it... what's your name Marine", asked John. The Marine was stunned, and answered, "Sergeant Andrew Jackson, sir". The Master Chief nodded again and walked away.

The Spartans and the Marines previously under Johns command got a couple days shore leave but the Spartans stayed on the ship. John sat on his bed and looked across the room at Wills bed and remembered all the times he had been saved by him. He smiled while tears formed in his eyes, remembering when they were kids and the jokes Will always told. As soon as he wiped away his tears Linda walked in the room. They stared at each other for a second then John got up and was about to walk out when Linda stopped him. "John...", she managed to say before the man who could face off against a squad of Covenant troops and win, fell apart and enveloped her in massive arms that could kill in a twitch. She was frozen in shock and confusement until she felt a wetness on her shoulder were Johns chin was. She hugged him back, and he squeezed tighter, and even through her enhancements, Linda thought he would crush her.

Just then the alarms blared and Keyes shouted that a lone covenant vessel was inbound over the intercom. John released Linda and she could finally breathe. He wiped his face and they both ran to the bridge. "Admiral, whats happening?", John demanded. Keyes looked at him with a somewhat angry look and told him, "Well, _Master Chief_, a minute ago a covenant frigate appeared and we were just about to neutralize it when it sent a 'Don't fire' signal on the E-band, followed by a six toned signal". Fred had just arrived on the bridge and whispered, "John...Is it possible?". John wasn't listening as he bolted for the Comms station and pulled the man out of his chair and sent the countersign: we're out in the free, we're all free. On video screen one a figure appeared and everyone stared in awe: a person in a suit of Mjolnir.

"You know, I'm pretty sure your not supposed to shoot at people on your own side", said the mysterious person. " Spartan, you shall indentify yourself immediately" John asked, attempting to be serious but was still in awe. "Hold on", the stranger said then turned around fired a clip from their assault rifle, then told somebody off screen to throw a grenade, followed by a bang. " Okay, I am Spartan-81, CPO Andrea" she finished. John furrowed his brow and tried to recall her when he made a connection with the voice... "YOU!", he yelled.

He remembered now, there was a girl that wasn't personally friends with any of the spartans because they could never find her, since she was so sneaky. When they were kids, whenever they didn't get food because they failed a test or disobeyed, she would sneak to the cafeteria and 'borrow' all kinds of food. Thats really the only time other than in drills that they saw her. She didn't even sleep in her bunk, Fred later found there was a storage compartment under her bed, but decided not to say anything.

" Good to see you too John", she replied. "Now if you don't mind Admiral, we could really use some help to clear out this tub if you can spare it". "I will send reinforcements immediately", said Keyes. Just as she was going to issue the order she noticed the Spartans were gone.

John, Fred, and Linda raced off to the armory to collect their suits. As soon as they got there a team of techs helped them suit up, and then gathered up an assortment of weapons. John grabbed a shotgun, pistol, and loaded up on grenades. Fred selected a shotgun as well, and a rocket launcher. Linda went with the obvious and retrieved a Sniping rifle along with a pistol and a variety of attachments for her rifle. After they were done equipping themselves, they ran to the pelican bay and jumped into their custom pelican.

Upon Johns return to earth from delta halo, the other spartans and himself were placed under Keyes' command. After a while they realized they would probably see half the action since the covenant was split and fighting each other, and that one faction sided with the humans and the other preoccupied with defending itself. So they coerced Keyes to let them 'upgrade' a pelican in their spare time. So in the end their contraption was a pelican the same color as their armor, had large pieces of scrap hull plate welded to areas of the pelican, the seats on one side of the ship were ripped out and replaced with big cargo containers for equipment and such, the ceiling had a compartment were an AA turret dropped down, and the nose had a piece carefully made to look like a hooked beak attached to it. The two most noteworthy aspects of The Iron Eagle was that there was no cockpit, and the front window section was replaced by ten centimeters of Titanium-A. This was done because an AI would fly the shuttle not a normal pilot. The group of spartans finally rested on a name: The Iron Eagle.

Looking back on it now, John remembered it was Will who had first thought of the Iron Falcon, but eagle made more sense since thats what on their shoulder patches. They strapped in, put Cortana in the AI receptacle, felt the ship fly out of the hangar. On the view screen, the three spartans winced as they saw the lone covenant vessel just sitting there with two hundred MAC stations, and some hundred forty ships aimed at it on combat readiness. As they approached the ship they noticed that all but one of the bay shields were down and it was surrounded by docking lights. Cortana guided them to the bay and landed, then waited for the shield to return and the bay to pressurize. The three spartans filed out and and made sure the room was clear. "All clear, Cortana whats the quickest route to the bridge," John asked. A NAV point appeared and they ran without any opposition...until they hit the bridge doors. There was a small unit of Brutes and Jackels with cutting equipment. The three noticed the unit hadn't noticed them, so the each primed a grenade and lobbed them—only none of the Brutes went down. They all turned and opened fire. The trio dove back into the hallway they were just in. John cursed himself for not bringing a longer ranged weapon. He looked as Fred unslung his launcher, aimed, fired and watched the carnage blossom. "Trippy...", John heard Linda whisper. John charged up an blasted a Brute in the face trying to be cool and get up. The bridge doors opened-- and John got slapped in the face by an assault rifle. He fell down in confusion as a green figure appeared and looked down upon him. He heard a girly laugh then somebody said "oops, sorry John... how have you been", he managed to hear, then he blacked out.


End file.
